Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

Hear the word “roundup” and you might just think of herding cattle. But Mark Klym, who coordinates the Hummingbird Roundup, thinks of counting tiny birds.

Well, the Hummingbird Roundup is a backyard survey of hummingbirds that we do every year. You can participate at any time. You can download the forms directly off of our website, or you can send us a letter. We appreciate a donation to help with the cost, but we can send you them forms and get you started. And, so what does it mean to you as a scientist to get this kind of data back? Well it’s very important. It helps us to understand where the hummingbirds are being see, when they’re being seen. What resources they’re using. It helps us to get an idea how people are responding to them, whether they’re feeding them appropriately, and it gives us an opportunity also to learn a little bit about these hummingbirds. When the survey started, we thought we had 14 species in the state and that some of them were extremely rare. Now we’re finding that these birds are not as rare as we thought, some of them are actually nesting in Texas, and we’ve got 18 species of hummingbird in Texas. These are native non-migrating species? Well, these are all migrating species, but they’re all naturally occurring in the state of Texas.

If you’re interested in surveying these fast fliers, as Mark mentioned, you can download the Hummingbird Roundup forms from the Parks and Wildlife website.

That’s our show… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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This is Passport to Texas

One of the things we tout about Wildscapes—which are landscapes comprised of native wildflowers and other native plants that provide food and shelter for wildlife—is how little maintenance they require once established.

That doesn’t make them entirely carefree, though.

Dr. Damon Waitt, senior botanist at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, says fall and winter can keep a body busy working on Wildscapes.

Fall and winter are both great times to start working on the wildflowers that we don’t think of as wildflowers: our trees and shrubs. And so, you can be planting trees and shrubs, you can be doing tree and shrub maintenance, pruning, and trimming your plants back—your small perennial, herbaceous plants—your lantanas, and things like that. You know, getting rid of that brush so the plants have room to grow the following spring. You can be collecting leaves and vegetative material from your plants to start your mulch pile, so you have mulch. There’s lots of things you can do in the garden in fall and winter.

So, if you thought you were free of yard work until spring…sorry.

That’s our show….we receive support from the Wildlife Restoration program…working to protect and preserve wildlife habitat in Texas….For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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This is Passport to Texas

The Texas Conservation Action Plan is a natural resource conservation strategy that directs and guides parks and Wildlife research, restoration, management and recovery of non-game species. It all starts with habitat.

08—And in Texas, of course, over 95% of the land is in private ownership, and it sets up a perfect public-private partnership.

Matt Wagner, deputy Director for the Wildlife Division, says landowner participation is critical when it comes to conservation of our state’s natural resources.

19—And they come to us most of the time for hunting and improving habitat for deer and other game species. At the same time our biologists are educating them about the non-game that occur on their property—whether it’s plants or animals. So that their actions can benefit non-game as well.

In addition to landowners, Texas Parks and Wildlife also partners with various public and private organizations and universities, and points to improvements in Texas to threatened and endangered species, as proof these partnerships work.

18—The bald eagle, of course, has been delisted. Peregrine falcons on the Texas coast now for the first time in more than 30 years, folks are able to go down and actually trap peregrines for hawking purposes on a limited basis because those animals have recovered to sustainable levels.

There’s more work to do, and you can help when you buy the horned lizard conservation license plate. It costs $30, with $22 going to non-game conservation in Texas.

We receive support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program…funding the private lands and public hunting programs.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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This is Passport to Texas

Ninety percent of the 12-hundred vertebrate species in Texas—that’s including fish—are non-game.

04—It doesn’t even include all the invertebrates that we have.

Invertebrates are estimated at 50-thousand. Matt Wagner, deputy Director for the Wildlife Division at Parks and Wildlife, says hunting and fishing license sales support conservation of game species and their habitats.

13—When you talk about non-game, and the species that aren’t hunted, there’s a lack of funding there. Although hunters have been paying for habitat work, we need to expand the number of folks that are contributing to conservation through their pocketbooks.

There are several ways for Texans to do that, and one way Wagner suggests celebrates a spiky Texas icon.

08—If you buy a horned lizard license plate for $30, $22 comes back to the agency to do non-game programs.

Sales of the horned lizard license plate generate between a quarter million to 300-thousand dollars annually.

12—We take that money, and then we leverage it with grants that come from the US Fish and Wildlife Service into the agency so that we can implement our Texas Conservation Action Plan.

Tomorrow: species that have benefited from Texans’ purchase of the conservation plate.

Our show receives support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program…funding the private lands and public hunting program.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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This is Passport to Texas

Cleburne State Park has an image problem—people don’t know it’s there. Yet it has so much to offer outdoor enthusiasts. Bryan Frazier, our SP guide, says whether you hike, bike, camp, or fish—you can enjoy all these activities at Cleburne SP.

It may get overlooked by some people, but its just down HWY 67 from the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex area. And I’ll say—it just might have as good, and maybe the best—trails that we have in our park system. They’re wide. They’re great for bikers and for those who just want to hike, And you can take a leisurely hike, or you can take a pretty intense walk through incredible scenery. You’re up almost in the North Texas Hill Country area. You’ve still got limestone outcroppings in here; you’ve got a nice lake that’s about 130 acres, so it’s good fishing. You’ve got great camping with full hook-ups: water, electric and sewer. And also at Cleburne, we’ve got some real interesting developments going on to make that park better. We’ve had brand new group bunk houses that hold up to 44 people. Total renovations of the dining hall that can be rented. And a new store and bathhouse are being built right on the lake, and a new beach access area right on the lake. So some real nice improvements to use those tax dollars and to use those voter approved, and legislative appropriated monies from past bienniums, that it shows up on the ground in ways that when people get to the park they can see that their park experience is going to be better.

Thanks Bryan.

That’s our show for today…with funding provided by Chevrolet…building dependable, reliable trucks for more than 90 years.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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